This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3534

Post No. :

14193

Today’s song is from the film ‘Alakh Niranjan’ (1940).

These days I am on a mission to collect and present valuable information on some less known actors and actresses, from the bygone era of the 30s and early 40s. Today also I will talk about a really forgotten actress of the silent era and the early Talkie films – LEELA CHANDRAGIRI or Miss Leela. Do not mix up this name with Leela Desai, Leela Sawant or Leela Mishra. All are different.

But before that, something about the film.The film’s name is ‘Alakh Niranjan’ aka ‘Gorakhnath’. We are all aware that “alakh niranjan” is the call given by the gossains (गोसाईं) (or followers) of Nath Sampradaay or the fakirs of Kabir Panth, when they visit a fixed number of households to ask for bhiksha (alms). When I was about 6 to 7 year old, during the visits to my Naani’s (maternal grandmother’s) home in a village, I used to hear this call from the gossain, who stood outside the door. Someone from the house used to give uncooked food material like rice, wheat or jowar. Even wheat atta was given. These gossains had a jholi (a spacious carrying bag made of cloth), having 4-5 compartments and they would expertly add the bhiksha to the appropriate compartment. They never took money. These people are also called by the name avadhoot (अवधूत) (a mystic or a saint who is beyond ego-consciousness, duality and common worldly concerns).

Alakh is a term used by Nath Sampradaay for The Creator. It signifies a nirgun (One that is beyond physical attributes) and nirakaar (One that is not bounded by form and shape) manifestation of the Supreme Power. The word alakh also means That which cannot be measured, or perceived by the physical sensory powers and intellect. Niranjan means spotless or pure. Primarily it is a call to identify the Nath Yogi. Niranjan is also another name for Lord Shiva.

A brief description of the Nath Sampradaay and about Gorakhnath. It is likely that some of our readers may not be familiar with the details behind these names. In the Hindu Sanaatan traditions the worship of Lord Shiva is called Shaivism and the worshippers and followers of Lord Shiva are called Shaivs. Nath Sampradaay is a sub tradition within Shaivism. The followers of this tradition consider Adinath or Lord Shiva as their first Lord. The word Nath implies Master. In this tradition, there is a lineage of nine Gurus or Teachers. The form of sadhna practiced by the followers of this tradition is called Hath Yog (हठ योग).

The first Guru in this lineage is Matsyendra Nath, who is better known as Machhindra Nath. The traditional history recounts that Matsyendra was born under an inauspicious star. This warranted his parents to throw the baby into the ocean. In the ocean the baby was swallowed by a large fish, and he lived and grew up inside the belly of the fish, for many years. The fish swam to the bottom of the ocean where Lord Shiva was imparting the secrets of yoga to Mata Parvati. Matsyendra overheard this discourse and learnt the secrets of yoga. He began to practice this yog sadhana inside the fish’s belly. After twelve years he finally emerged as an enlightened Siddha.

There is a list of Nine Nath Gurus, who are called Navnath. The first Nath Guru is Machhindra. The complete list is as follows

Machhindranath

Gorakhnath

Jalandhar Nath

Kanif Nath (Kanhoba)

Gahini Nath

Raja Bhartrihari Nath (Bharthari)

Revan Sidha Nath

Charpati Nath and

Naag Nath.

The stories surrounding every Nath Guru, especially the earlier ones, are very exciting, thrilling and entertaining. One must read them from the original Nath Puraan or Nav Nath Pothi. I have read all of them. These stories are in no way less than any Arabian Night stories. Due to their entertainment value, several films in several languages have been made on the early Gurus like Machhindranath and Gorakhnath. Films on Machhindranath were made as ‘Maaya Machhindra’ in Hindi, in 1932, 1951, 1960 and 1975. Films on Gorakhnath as ‘Alakh Niranjan’, were made in 1940, 1950 and 1975. Films on Bharthari were made in 1932 and 1944. Films on other Naths were made as ‘Raja Gopichand’ in 1933, 1938 and 1950. Same way films on Naths in Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and other languages were also made.

‘Alakh Niranjan’ is the story of Gorakhnath. The story of his birth is briefly given below.

The first Guru Machhindra Nath went to a house for bhiksha. The lady of the house, after giving him the bhiksha, asked him if he can bless her to bear a child, a wish that had remained unfulfilled thus far in her life. Guru Machhindra Nath dipped his hand in his jholi and took out some some vibhuti (ash). He gave it to her and asked her to partake it and that she will conceive a son. After he is gone, one of the neighbours tells the lady not to believe all this. The lady gets a doubt and throws the vibhuti on a pile of garbage.

Time passes. After 12 years, Machhindra Nath again comes to the lady and asks, how her son was. The lady, ashamed, tells him the truth. The Guru goes to the pile of garbage and gives a loud call, “My son, come here”. From the garbage rises a son of about 12 years. He is Gorak Nath. Machhindranath takes him away and gives him the deeksha (anointing him as his disciple) of Nath Sampradaay. ‘Go‘ means Earth and ‘rakh‘ means to protect. So Gorakh is one who is protected by Mother Earth.

The film (1940 version) was made by Arun Pictures and directed by Bhal G Pendharkar (Bhalchandra Gopal Pendharkar – 3-5-1897 to 28-11-1994). Born at Kolhapur, he was the son of King Shahu Maharaja’s court physician Dr. Gopal Pendharkar, and Radhabai. He was awarded Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1991, when he was 94 year old already. More about this illustrious film director some other time. Let us now talk about the film’s heroine Miss Leela.

Leela Chandragiri was born in Chikodi, a town near Kolhapur, in a singing family. She learnt singing from a very young age. The talent hunters of Prabhat film company found her and she was brought to Kolhapur. She was beautiful, tall and wheat complexioned. She made her debut in V Shantaram’s silent film ‘Uday Kaal’ in 1930. She did the role of Bhawani Devi, who blesses Shivaji and gives him the Bhawani talwar (sword). Leela became famous by acting in the grand silent film ‘Chandrasena’ (1931) of Prabhat films.

Leela’s first talkie film was ‘Jalti Nishani’ (1932), a bilingual in Hindi and Marathi (as ‘Agni Kankan’). The hero in this film was Master Vinayak. Leela had no problem in delivering Hindi/Urdu dialogues as she was fluent in both languages. She became the heartthrob of the audiences. Being from a singing family and trained, singing came naturally to her. She sang her own songs starting from her first talkie film itself. In 1933, she appeared in ‘Maya Machhindra’ (1933), in which her hero was Master Vinayak again. They worked together again in a Marathi film ‘Sinhgad’. Prabhat’s first coloured film ‘Sairandhri’ (1933) also featured her in the main role. The film was processed in Germany.

After this, Prabhat Films shifted to Poona, but Leela chose to stay back in Kolhapur and decided to work with Bhalji Pendharkar. They became attracted to each others and got married. Leela already had two children, a son, Jaysingh and a daughter, Madhavi. Bhalji adopted both children and gave them father’s love. Even Bhalji had one son from his first marriage – Prabhakar. Later, when they built their own studio, it was given the name Jayprabha. It combined his two sons’ names – JAYsingh and PRABHAkar. Madhavi got married to the Marathi author Ranjit Desai. Madhavi also authored one book herself.

Miss Leela appeared in the following films –

Jalti Nishani (1932)

Maya Machhindra (1932)

Sairandhri (1933)

Akashwani (1934)

Kaal Koot (1935)

Kaliya Mardan (1935)

Raja Gopichand (1938)

Alakh Niranjan (1940)

Maharathi Karna (1944)

Swarna Bhoomi (1944)

Valmiki (1946), and

Chhatrapati Shivaji (1952).

She mostly worked in films directed or made by Bhalji Pendharkar only. During the riots in 1948 (on account of Gandhi ji’s assasination), their Jayprabha studio was burnt down, because Bhalji was a Brahmin. However, within few years he built it again. After Bhalji’s death the studio was purchased by Lata Mangeshkar.

During Miss Leela’s career, contemporary to her, there were 3 more actresses named Leela active in Hindi films. One was Leela Desai (daughter of a Gujarati father and a Bengali mother from Bihar. She was born in America.). The second was Leela Mishra – who became Leela mausi later on. The third one was Leela Sawant – essentially a stunt film actress who worked in master Bhagwan’s films.

The music of this film was by DP Korgaonkar aka K Datta (who is known for film ‘Badi Maa’ (1945) and songs of Noorjehan). The main role of Gorakhnath was done by B Nandrekar. Other actors were Chandrakant (father of well known Marathi/Hindi actor Vikram Gokhale), Raja Paranjape (who became a famous Marathi director in the 1950’s decade) and others. There were 8 songs in the film. 4 were sung by Miss Leela. Both the film as well as the singer Miss Leela are making their debut on the blog today.

[Author’s Note: Acknowledgements and thanks – The above write up refers to and has adapted material from ‘Beete Kal Ke Sitaare’ by Shri S Tamrakar, ‘Flashback’ by Isak Mujawar, Wikipedia, CITWF.com, MuVyz.com, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, HFGK and my own notes.]

[Ed Note 1 : As I was noting the lyrics of this delightful song, I also noted that in this song, a lady is being teased by her friends. The lady is in the family way, carrying a child, and the friends are singing a song about it. The words and the phrases, as presented are so playful, so endearing, and at the same time, modest and innocent. The friends are singing of the progressing months in pregnancy, and how the lady is blossoming. Then when the time comes, she gives birth to a child. I do not remember hearing any other such song in HFM; maybe I am not aware. I can recall some songs that are sung by the husband wife couple who are expecting a child. The manner in which a group of friends are teasing an expectant mother – I think I am hearing for the first time. The wording is just so wonderful.

nanadi ne kheencha palla boli kahaan hai lalla

Nanadi, the younger sister in law of the lady; she playfully pulls at her bhabhi’s palla and asks – o tell me, where is the child. The imagery created by these words and these lines is so wonderful. I would request other readers and friends to comment if there are other similar instances in the world of Hindi film songs.]

[Ed Note 2 : I request help from other readers with keener ears to help with one word marked as ?? in the lyrics below.]

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

“Deepak”(1951) was directed by Chandrashekhar for Ram Ganguly Productiions, Bombay. this by now obscure movie had Prithviraj, Vijaylaxmi, Umesh Sharma, Arun Ganguly, Sajjan, Kamal Mehra, Shanti Madhok etc in it.Read more on this topic…

This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Today, May 8th 2016 is being celebrated as Mothers’ Day in many countries including India. Whether it is Mothers’ Day or any other day, whenever I remember my mother, I always recall the famous dialogue ‘mere paas maa hai’ written by Salim-Javed and delivered on the screen by Shashi Kapoor in the film ‘Deewar’ (1975). These four simple words say a lot about the importance of the mother. I used to wonder what gave Salim-Javed the idea to create this famous dialogue. I checked their profiles and came to know that both of them had lost their mothers in their respective childhoods. My own take is that somewhere in their sub-conscious minds, they missed their mothers and that was how this dialogue came about. In any case, this dialogue fitted well in the film. Shashi Kapoor had his mother as the only possession which he valued above materialistic possesions.Read more on this topic…

This article is written by Avinash Scrapwala, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

“Mere paas Maa hai …”

“Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother’ so today on the international day of women, we pay our tributes to women and the ‘mother’ in them.

“Swami Tinhi Jagaacha Aai vina Bhikaari” …

Goes the lines are from a poem in ‘Marathi’, it means that… Even the lord of all the ‘three worlds’ is a beggar without a Mother…

Yes, every one of us understands the value of this word ‘mother’ and the value of her unconditional love she showers on us. How she cares for her child, how she serves a child for his whole life till she is alive.
Those who have been fortunate to have a mother and also those who are deprived of a mother’s love know very well the value of this word ‘mother’.Read more on this topic…

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

“Maashooqa” (1953) was directed by Shanti Kumar for Chitrakar productions. The movie had Mukesh, Suraiyya, Agha, Kuldip Kaur, Durga Khote, Amirbai Karnataki etc in it.Read more on this topic…

This article is written by nahm, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

Here is another song from the Film “Aradhana” which I like a lot. Actually in this genre of songs my favourite is “mere ghar aayi ek nanhi pari” from “Kabhi Kabhi” which is already posted, and the post in written by Lalitha ji.Read more on this topic…